AS539 in-flight non-event?

[poorjohn]

Anything interesting about AS539 emergency into KSJC this morning? Loss of cabin pressure, electrical issues...

[fortystripes]

Story (http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_21263076/san-jose-airport-firefighters-respond-after-incoming-plane)

An Alaska Airlines flight making its way from Southern California to Seattle made an emergency landing in San Jose on Wednesday morning after initially reporting "catastrophic electrical failure with cabin depressurization," according to the FAA and local fire officials.
The San Jose Fire Department rushed crews to Mineta San Jose International Airport. The Boeing 737 landed safely with no injuries.
Fire dispatchers received a 911 call from the airport tower at 7:24 a.m. that Alaska Airlines Flight 539 heading to Seattle had lost cabin pressure and was experiencing "catastrophic electrical failure," according to San Jose Fire Capt. Mary Gutierrez.
The aircraft, which departed from Ontario airport at 6:28 a.m., landed safely at 7:42 a.m. It was later reported the aircraft had experienced "minor electrical issues," but did lose cabin pressure, Gutierrez said.
In an e-mail, Alaska Airlines spokesperson Bobbie Egan said the flight began experiencing several electrical issues as it was climbing to its cruising altitude. The crew also had to manually pressurize the cabin.
The flight descended to 10,000 feet and diverted to San Jose, Egan said.
Because of the nature of the call, the fire department response included six ambulances and a trailer capable of dealing with mass casualties, Gutierrez said.
The fire department holds yearly training for potential airport disasters; in March, first responders did a full scale
exercise for a plane crash at the San Jose airport.
The airplane has been taken out of service while maintenance technicians determine the cause and make repairs, according to Egan.
The 131 passengers on board were re-accommodated on various flights out of Oakland and San Francisco, Egan said. A larger aircraft was being substituted for the noon flight from San Jose to Seattle to accommodate other passengers.

"Had to manually pressurize the plane" - so, it was simply a failure of the automatic pressurization controls?

[Gemini Twin]

No there is a big foot pump behind the F/O's seat.;) Non event

[sevenstrokeroll]

I have a feeling that they were flying along, fat dumb and happy, on autopilot,and bam, a generator fell off line, or some similiar electrical problem...autopilot disengaged and auto pressurization system went off line and drove all outflow valves to closed.

pilots woke up, ears hurt, hand flew for a few seconds and re engaged autopilot once electrics were sorted out and the manual, ac or dc control to manipulate the outflow valve was used.

while it is a non event for some...I'm sure the passengers felt it and got a bit scared

[oliver2002]

Fire dispatchers received a 911 call from the airport tower :p So the ATC picks up the phone and dials 911? :rolleyes:

[SeniorDispatcher]

I have a feeling that they were flying along, fat dumb and happy, on autopilot,and bam, a generator fell off line, or some similiar electrical problem...autopilot disengaged and auto pressurization system went off line and drove all outflow valves to closed

pilots woke up, ears hurt, hand flew for a few seconds and re engaged autopilot once electrics were sorted out and the manual, ac or dc control to manipulate the outflow valve was used.

Pretty close. Subsequent info out was that the air/ground sensing failed while enroute passing through FL250, and the aircraft (now thinking it was on the ground) began to lose the cabin. They caught it before the cabin masks could drop, and Flightaware's profife shows pretty much a gradual descent from FL280 (the highest they ever were, staying out of RVSM territory) down to 10,000 and landing SJC shortly thereafter.

The media's coverage of this event shows (yet again) the fallacy of initial info being anything close to being accurate (even as reported by FAA and the local FD), since the spokespeople for those entities are not necessarily as knowledgeable as front-line airline operational folks with more detailed awarness/training on specific aircraft systems. That can lead to incorrect assessments, which the media then takes as Gospel and runs with as they turn things into a potential TV disaster movie. That seems to be the media's default reaction, and only after some facts come out (after a little time) does the initially reported "catastrophic electrical failure" get turned into something less ominous. Ditto for "flight control issues" (just both A and B autopilots tripped?) and the depressurization (which the media always seems to think has to be rapid/explosive versus gradual).

When more detailed info gets updated from the initial "imminent doom" coverage, it's never reported as a "correction" (like the newspapers used to do), but as an update to the story, assuming they even mention the word "update" Naturally, something less than 100% of the folks who saw the original report ever see/hear the true info, and the proper context and application of it.

Bottomline, it was the crew's routine handling of a non-routine event.

[SeniorDispatcher]

Incident: Alaska B734 near San Jose on Aug 8th 2012, loss of cabin pressure, electric failure (http://avherald.com/h?article=453f0aee&opt=0)

FlightAware > Alaska Airlines (AS) #539 > 08-Aug-2012 > KONT - KSEA Flight Tracker (http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA539/history/20120808/1330Z/KONT/KSEA)

FlightAware > Flight Track Log > ASA539 > 08-Aug-2012 > KONT - KSJC (http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA539/history/20120808/1330Z/KONT/KSJC/tracklog)